The present invention relates generally to a security housing or enclosure, and is particularly concerned with a security housing for one or more outdoor vending machines to provide protection from vandalism, theft, and the elements.
Vandalism of outdoor automatic vending machines, and thefts from such machines, are relatively common during time periods when there is not much activity, such as late at night. In order to reduce vandalism and theft, some vending machines are enclosed in cages which have appropriate openings to allow customers to deposit money and select and retrieve products, but which prevent close access to the machine. However, this arrangement does not prevent vandalism, since vandals can reach between the bars with various tools and cause damage or deface the machine surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,615 of Kaizu et al. describes a booth or housing for enclosing an automatic transaction machine such as an automatic teller or ATM. A generally rectangular booth has a customer area and a machine area separated from the customer area by fixed partitions. Two automatic transaction machines are mounted in the machine area with access from the customer area, and two separate doors are provided for access to the respective machines.